Suicide bombers in Afghanistan kill nine, wound 23

An Afghan National Army officer escorts a slightly injured boy from the site of a suicide attack on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan February 8, 2016.Anil Usyan

GARDEZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers targeting Afghan government and military employees killed at least nine people on Monday and wounded 23, officials said.

Six civilians died and nine were injured in a blast outside a bakery shop in Yahyakhil district of Paktika province, an area near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, district governor Musa Khan Kharuti said.

The suicide bomber apparently targeted police and government employees buying bread, a provincial police official said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Earlier in the day, three people were killed in an attack on a bus carrying Afghan army personnel in Dehdadi district, not far from the Balkh provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said.

The ministry put the number of wounded at eight, while Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for the Balkh provincial governor, said that 14, including three women, had been injured.

The bomber detonated a suicide vest near the bus as it was carrying members of the army's 209th Shaheen Corps, and all of the reported casualties were army employees, Farhad said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the military bus in a statement released online. The statement named a resident of Wardak province, which neighbours the Afghan capital city of Kabul, as the attacker.

Buses carrying military and government employees to and from work have been common targets for insurgent groups like the Taliban, who are seeking to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul and reimpose harsh Islamic rule 15 years after they were ousted form power.

Reporting by Samihullah Paiwand in Gardez and Bashir Ansari in Mazar-i-Sharif; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Nick Macfie